IYANDA'SBLOG

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The Indigenous nation said it is too early to say if the remains belonged to former students of the school.

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Mahani Teave returned to the world's most remote inhabited island to help preserve its culture.

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A former army general is leading the war against the Ethiopian government.

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The EU's vaccine passport - its Digital Covid Certificate - is being rolled out across all 27 nations.

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Small e-commerce entrepreneurs have thrived in lockdown - now big money wants to buy them out.

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Donald Trump says migrants are crossing the border like the US "has never seen". We've checked the numbers.

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From "red films" and rap to a lavish gala, the country has seen a ramped-up propaganda drive.

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There is much debate about how to deal with China's authoritarian politics, reports the BBC's John Sudworth.

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Some of those caught up in the attack on the northern city of Palma by Islamist militants share their stories.

The Kano State Hisbah Board says it has arrested a young man identified as Muhammad Ikbal who stopped praying and going to the mosque after operatives of the Islamic police shaved his hair.

Sharing the photos of Mohammed, Hisbah Commander-in-Chief, Ustaz Harun Muhammad Sani Ibn Sina, urged him to desist from further immoral act.

Ibn Sina further instructed him to go and do a Nafl prayer and ask God for forgiveness. 

A Nafil prayer or supererogatory prayer also known as Nawafil prayers is a type of optional Muslim formal worship.

They are not considered obligatory but are thought to confer extra benefit on the person performing them.

Ibn Sina had in an audio message obtained by SaharaReporters last week said the commission was looking for Mohammed for violating Islamic law.

The young guy had in a trending video claimed he stopped praying after Hisbah operatives shaved off his long hair for being ‘unIslamic'.

Despite condemnation from Nigerians, the Hisbah group has continued its push for the Islamic agenda in the North.

The agency, established to enforce Sharia law in some states in the region, recently banned stylish haircuts, sagging of trousers, playing of music at social events by disk jockeys and tricycle riders from adorning their vehicles with pictures considered to be obscene and against the tenents of Islam.

A barber and his customers were also arrested recently for giving and having haircuts respectively, considered to be offensive to Islam.

They are also notorious for destroying truckloads of alcoholic drinks.

Also, in March, Hisbah operatives arrested two men suspected of sending pornographic materials to a married woman.

The suspects were traced and arrested after the woman complained to the board.

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The ruling marks the first time Serbian officials are convicted of crimes in Bosnia.

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The former president himself is not expected to be implicated personally in the New York case.

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Allison Mack had already admitted recruiting women and asked for forgiveness before sentencing.

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Nearly 150 people are still missing after the collapse of the tower block near Miami last week.

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Once a national treasure, the comedian was jailed for sexual assault but that conviction has now been overturned.

The National Security Adviser, Maj Gen Babagana Monguno (retd.), has raised the alarm that terrorist organisations like the Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province are recruiting and radicalising vulnerable Nigerian youths through the social media.

Monguno raised the alarm at the ongoing second United Nations High-Level Conference of Heads of Counter-Terrorism Agencies of member-states, convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, in New York.

Babagana Monguno

He declared that the intention of the terrorist groups was to portray the Federal Government as incapable of protecting the population, Tribune reports. 

The NSA said, "The Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists are also using the social media to instil fear in the target communities, as well as to deflate the morale of defence and security forces.” 

He added that terrorism had continued to manifest itself as a vicious and relentless global threat, recognising no border, nationality and religion.

The NSA stated that in order to deal decisively with the complex nature of terrorism and other organised transnational crimes, the international community must see the menace as a threat to global peace and security.

Monguno said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has persistently confronted the nation’s challenges by setting up new structures and institutions, as well as empowering them.

According to him, the Federal Government has improved the coordination of humanitarian support for non-governmental organisations by creating the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

He observed that in the recent past, the President had approved the establishment of the National Commission of the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons and the National Commission for the Coordination of Cyber Security.

 

The NSA said the government was empowering the National Financial Intelligence Unit to trace terrorist organisations’ sources of funding.

 

Monguno reiterated Buhari’s commitment to diffusing tensions in Lake Chad Basin via the Multinational Joint Task Force. 

 

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A group of Igbo lawyers resident in the United Kingdom has described as illegal the arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian government.

The legal practitioners under the auspices of the Coalition of Igbo-British Lawyers condemned the Kenyan Government for arresting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, who is also a British citizen, and handing him over to the Nigerian government.

The group revealed this in a statement signed by Barrister Ebuka Okoroafor and made available to SaharaReporters on Wednesday.

According to the lawyers, the Kenyan government has violated the human rights of Kanu, who possesses both Nigerian and British passports.   

“Coalition of Igbo-British lawyers condemns the illegal detention and subsequent handing over of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the Nigerian government by the Kenyan Government.

“The Coalition of Igbo-British lawyers in a statement issued and signed by Attorney E.R Okoroafor on the 30th of June, 2021 at his Glasgow residence in the United Kingdom has condemned the illegal and archaic manner in which the Kenyan Government has acted in the illegal detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

“It also condemned the subsequent handing him over to the Nigerian Government without any due process.

“It is worthy of note to mention that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu entered Kenya with his British passport, and the Kenyan government is fully aware of his citizenship status but still went ahead to perpetrate their illegal act which does not only breach the personal human rights of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu but also undermine the sovereignty of the British government,” the statement read in part.

The group also disclosed that the illegal action will be addressed at the International Criminal Court, in Hague, The Netherlands, while asking the Nigerian government to convey Kanu back to the United Kingdom before the expiration of 48 hours.

The Igbo British lawyers also stated that the failure of the Nigerian government to do so has declared war on Kanu, IPOB, and the entire Igbos.

“While this serves as a pre-action notice to the Kenyan Government as we shall be heading to the International Criminal Court to rectify the injustice done as it is trite law that injustice to one is injustice to all, we are also by this medium informing the Nigerian Government that they have 48 hours to return Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to the United Kingdom.

“And if he has any charges to answer to, they should as a nation that is governed by the constitution, pass through the legal means of filing an extradition notice as failure to do so, we shall not hesitate to term this a declaration of war on not only Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB but all Igbos generally, and this we shall vehemently resist with all apparatus of law available at our disposal.

“While all this is being done, the Nigerian government is also being warned that no bodily harm whatsoever must be done to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to avoid a total breakdown of law and order in the fast crumbling entity called Nigeria,” the Igbo–British lawyers added in the statement.

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Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned Bill Cosby’s sex assault conviction Wednesday after finding an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case.

Cosby has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence at a state prison near Philadelphia, New York Post reports. 

He had vowed to serve all 10 years rather than acknowledge any remorse over the 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand.

The 83-year-old Cosby, who was once beloved as “America’s Dad,” was convicted of drugging and molesting the Temple University employee at his suburban estate.

He was charged in late 2015, when a prosecutor armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition from her lawsuit — arrested him days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.
 

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The Court of Appeal, Yola Division, Adamawa State has affirmed the conviction of Ibrahim Mohammed Umar, a former electoral officer with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Yola South Local Government Area. 

A statement on Wednesday by the Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC stated this. 

Umar and his accomplice had earlier been convicted of three counts by an Adamawa State High Court and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for receiving monetary benefit (bribery) to the tune of N362 million, being part of the bribe allegedly distributed by a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke to influence the outcome of the 2015 elections.

The convict was arraigned alongside a former staff member of a new generation bank by the EFCC on September 28, 2018.

During the trial, EFCC called 14 witnesses and tendered several documents which were admitted in evidence.

Justice Nathan Musa, in his judgment, held that EFCC proved its case beyond reasonable doubt as investigation proved that the convict was identified as the person who signed and collected the said sum and was unable to account for its whereabouts.

He was therefore convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment without an option of fine on all the counts.

Dissatisfied with the judgement, Umar approached the Court of Appeal, Yola Division on March 4, 2020 asking that the judgment of the lower court be set aside.

The appellate court on April 14, 2021 delivered its judgement, wherein it unanimously affirmed the judgment of the lower court.

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The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, in April 2021 set up a seven-man committee of top police officers whose responsibility is to dislodge the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN) in the South-East and South-South regions.

SaharaReporters obtained a signal from the IGP’s office which listed out the top officers deployed to crush the IPOB and ESN agitations.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP)

The IGP constituted the committee led by Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Tijani Baba, and having other police officers such as; Assistant-Inspector General of Police, Habu Sani, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, John Abang, Commissioner of Police, Sadiq Idris Abubakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police Adepoju Ilori, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, and Deputy Commissioner of Police Kolo Yusuf.

SaharaReporters learnt that although the signal said the officers should fashion solutions to also end banditry and insurgency, their major assignment was on how to contain IPOB, ESN, and the secessionist threats in the South-East and South-South regions, which were “embarrassing” the President.

The signal reads, “Ahead of the IGP’s scheduled presentation to President Muhammadu Buhari, the IGP has constituted a committee headed by Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Tijani Baba, and other members of the committee; Assistant-Inspector General of Police, Habu Sani, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, John Abang, Commissioner of Police, Sadiq Idris Abubakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police Adepoju Ilori, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, and Deputy Commissioner of Police Kolo Yusuf.

“The terms of reference are to review the security situation of the country and in relation to insurgency and banditry and secessionist threats and examine current strategies and evolve a new operational plan towards curtailing the internal security threats to the country and determine the manpower and materials needed to execute the operations and cost implication report of the committee to be submitted not later than 1600hours of 22/04/2021 for final vetting by the IGP against his scheduled presentation to Mr President on Friday, April 23 by 0900 hours.”

 

A civil group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, in a release to SaharaReporters on Wednesday, said it believed that the same committee of police officers sent the squad which invaded the residence of top IPOB lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor in Anambra State on June 6.

The intersociety said, “We wish to place it on irrefutable record that personnel of the Nigeria Police Force’s Intelligence Bureau or FIB, Abuja and the ‘Special Force’ in Anambra have been identified as being responsible for the ungodly hours of Sunday, June 6, 2021 invasion of Lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor’s ancestral Family House at Oraifite in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State.

“Barr Ifeanyichukwu Ejiofor is a licensed legal practitioner, senior member of the Nigerian Bar Association, and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria as well as a Human Rights Lawyer of international repute and Principal Counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra and its leader, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu. The attack in his house by the murderous security operatives was a ‘mission to abduct, kill, burn and destroy evidence’ including ensuring that the abducted three domestic staff members never come back alive.

“It is also our finding that the domestic staff: Felix Emeka Okonkwo (over 55-year-old driver), Ugochukwu Lawrence Okafor (20-year-old gardener), and Ikenna Chibuike (35-year-old gateman) are being held dead or alive in Abuja at the Directorate of the Force Intelligence Bureau, headed by DIG Tijani Baba.

“Further investigation by Intersociety showed that the FIB personnel’s attack was carefully hatched in Abuja and executed in Anambra using the local services and lethal facilities, equipment, and personnel belonging to the so-called 'Special Force’ in the state,” the group said.

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An undergraduate of Lagos State University, Afeez Ogunbowale, has been sentenced to 21 years imprisonment by the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja.

Ogunbowale was sentenced by Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo on Tuesday after he was found guilty of five counts bordering on conspiracy, rape, and armed robbery. 

"The defendant is hereby sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for conspiracy, 21 years’ imprisonment each for counts of armed robbery, and 21 years’ imprisonment each for counts of rape. The sentences are to run concurrently,” she said.

It was gathered that Ogunbowale and his other accomplices who are still at large, committed the offences on April 18, 2018, at the Okokomaiko area of Lagos where they attacked their victims with dangerous weapons such as guns, knives, machetes, and bottles.

The affected students said Ogunbowale and his four other accomplices, robbed them of their possessions; phones, power bank, earpiece, gold chain, and cash of N1,200, at their off-campus accommodation.

They further explained that two of the female students, who were virgins, were also raped by two members of the gang, including Ogunbowale.

NAN reports that in their testimonies on November 4, 2019, the two students told the court that they lost their virginities to the attack.

They said they were robbed by five men but raped by two members of the gang – Ogunbowale and another – who is at large.

However, they said they were able to identify Ogunbowale through Facebook, adding that they belonged to the same faculty.

The complainants testified that when they confronted the convict at a police station, he prostrated and begged for forgiveness.

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The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has said the price of petrol should be more than N280 per litre, the rate at which Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, is being sold.

According to Kyari, Nigeria remains the only country in the world where the price of diesel outweighs that of petrol.

He made this known on Tuesday, during a programme on Channels Television.

Kyari cited the activities of smugglers who take petrol from the country as an impediment to the country’s oil sector. 

The NNPC boss said even though petrol evacuation by NNPC in Nigeria is currently about 60 million litres daily, the corporation is certain that consumption is not up to that volume.

He blamed smuggling for the huge consumption volume, describing the low petrol price of N162/litre as also an incentive for this.

He, however, said it would not prompt another closure of the borders, noting that the government had intensified efforts at curbing smuggling.

Kyari said, “Today we are paying N162/litre (for petrol). I am sure many people buy AGO (diesel) in the market and it is selling at N280/litre in the market today.

“So (there is) nowhere in the world diesel sells more expensive than PMS. That means that the price of petrol anywhere in the world, assuming you are going to sell it at the market, you are going to sell it above that price you have seen. 

“Today, from what I can remember, I checked the number two days ago; what would we sell if we are at the filling station today and recover our cost fully is around N256/litre.”

Kyari said the deliberations between the government and the organised labour on petrol price had not been concluded and could drag beyond next July.

He said negotiations on the cost of petrol would have to be concluded to enable the government to effect a change in the cost of the commodity.

While answering questions on NNPC's proposed acquisition of a 20 per cent stake in Dangote refinery, Kyari said the corporation was borrowing to buy the stake in the refinery because the refinery business is viable and sustainable.

The NNPC had announced in May that it was in advanced talks with Dangote Industries to acquire a 20 per cent stake in the 650,000 bpd refinery.

Kyari said government money would not be used for the stake acquisition.

He said, “We are borrowing on the back of the cash flow of this business. We know that this business is viable, it will work and it will return dividends.

"It has a cash flow that is sustainable because refinery business, in the short term, will continue to be sustainable. That’s why banks have come forward to lend to us, so we can take equity in this.

"There is no resource-dependent country that will watch a business of this scale, which is bordering on energy security and has implications for fiscal security of the country, and you don’t have a say. And for us, as a strategy, we started this process long before Dangote started his refinery project.”

According to Kyari, the NNPC takes equity in very significant businesses that are anchored on the oil and gas operations: fertiliser, methanol plants, modular refineries and others.

He said the Dangote refinery would start production by 2022, adding that it would deliver over 50 million litres of petrol into the Nigerian markets.

He said, “We are also working on our refineries, to ensure that we fix them. We have awarded the contract for Port Harcourt refinery rehabilitation. And ultimately we are going to close that of Warri and Kaduna very soon in July so that all of them will work contemporaneously.

"The net effect is that you are going to have an environment where Nigeria becomes the hub of petroleum products and supply. It’s going to change the dynamics of petroleum supply globally in the sense that the flow is coming from Europe today and it is going to be reversed to some other direction.”

He added, “So the meaning of this is, there is an opportunity that has been thrown at us. And I’m not sure Mr Dangote wants to sell his equity in the refinery.

"I can confirm that it was at our instance that we started this engagement. He did not want to sell his shares in this refinery.”
 

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The family of Nnamdi Kanu has narrated how the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) was ‘unlawfully’ arrested in Kenya.

The Nigerian government had on Tuesday announced Kanu’s arrest and extradition to Nigeria to continue to face trial.

Nnamdi Kanu

He was subsequently arraigned with a blindfold before Binta Nyako, a Judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony instituted against him at the court in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB.

He was granted bail in April 2017 for health reasons but skipped bail after flouting some of the conditions given to him by the court.

In a statement obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday, Nnamdi Kanu's younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu said he was unlawfully arrested in Kenya, detained and was subsequently extracted from the country to Nigeria where he is now detained.

He said, “My brother Nnamdi Kanu demands the right to self-determination for Biafra. Self-determination is the right tthat underpins the United Nations.

Because Biafrans support Nnamdi Kanu’s call for Biafran self-determination, my brother has now been subjected to the most serious violations of international law.
 
“Whilst visiting Kenya, Nnamdi Kanu was detained and handed over to the Nigerian authorities who then flew him to Nigeria.
 
“My brother has been subjected to extraordinary rendition by Kenya and Nigeria. They have violated the most basic principles of the rule of law. Extraordinary rendition is one of the most serious crimes states can commit. Both Nigeria and Kenya must be held to account. I demand justice for my brother, Nnamdi Kanu.”

“Nnamdi Kanu holds both British and Nigerian citizenship. Nnamdi Kanu is Biafran, not Nigerian. He has rejected his Nigerian citizenship.
 
“The British High Commission in Nigeria must insist upon my brother’s immediate release. They must guarantee his safety and security. Nnamdi Kanu must be returned home to the UK to his wife and his sons who live here. The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, must make clear to the Nigerian authorities that they will not tolerate the unlawful detention of British citizens and that the UK Government condemns the Nigerians and Kenyans for undermining the rule of law. Foreign Secretary Raab must be clear. 

"There will be consequences for those who resort to extraordinary rendition. The British Government must insist upon justice for Nnamdi Kanu," he added.

SaharaReporters had on Tuesday reported that Kanu was extradited from an African country. 

A top source had revealed to SaharaReporters that the IPOB leader was picked up at a location in Africa.

“He was not arrested in London or anywhere in the United Kingdom. Diplomats confirmed that Kanu was picked up somewhere in Africa. The family and IPOB are very unhappy. Apparently, they have known about the trailing and arrest for some time,” he had said

 

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